Postsecondary officials are regularly asked to balance
the interests of safety and privacy for individual
students. While the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) generally requires institutions
to ask for written consent before disclosing a
student's personally identifiable information, it also
allows colleges and universities to take key steps
to maintain campus safety. Understanding the
law empowers school officials to act decisively and
quickly when issues arise.

Health or Safety Emergency

In an emergency, FERPA permits school officials to
disclose without student consent education records,
including personally identifiable information from
those records, to protect the health or safety of
students or other individuals. At such times, records
and information may be released to appropriate
parties such as law enforcement officials, public
health officials, and trained medical personnel. See
34 CFR § 99.31(a)(10) and § 99.36. This exception to
FERPA's general consent rule is limited to the period
of the emergency and generally does not allow for a
blanket release of personally identifiable information
from a student's education records. In addition, the
Department interprets FERPA to permit institutions
to disclose information from education records to
parents if a health or safety emergency involves their
son or daughter.

Disciplinary Records

While student disciplinary records are protected as
education records under FERPA, there are certain
circumstances in which disciplinary records may
be disclosed without the student's consent. A
postsecondary institution may disclose to an alleged
victim of any crime of violence or non-forcible sex
offense the final results of a disciplinary proceeding
conducted by the institution against the alleged
perpetrator of that crime, regardless of whether the
institution concluded a violation was committed.
An institution may disclose to anyone—not just the
victim—the final results of a disciplinary proceeding,
if it determines that the student is an alleged perpetrator of a crime of violence or non-forcible
sex offense, and with respect to the allegation made
against him or her, the student has committed a
violation of the institution's rules or policies. See 34
CFR §§ 99.31(a)(13) and (14).

The Clery Act

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security
Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires
postsecondary institutions to provide timely
warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the
safety of students or employees and to make public
their campus security policies. It also requires that
crime data be collected, reported, and disseminated
to the campus community and to the Department
annually. The Clery Act is intended to provide
students and their families with accurate, complete,
and timely information about safety on campuses
so that they can make informed decisions. Such
disclosures are permitted under FERPA. The
following Web site provides more information about
these and other provisions about campus safety:
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.
html.

Law Enforcement Unit Records

Many colleges and universities have their own law
enforcement units to monitor safety and security in
and around campus. Institutions that do not have
specific law enforcement units may designate a
particular office or school official to be responsible
for referring potential or alleged violations of law to
local police authorities. Investigative reports and
other records created and maintained by these law
enforcement units are not considered education
records subject to FERPA. Accordingly, institutions
may disclose information from law enforcement
unit records to anyone, including outside law
enforcement authorities, without student consent.
See 34 CFR § 99.8.

While an institution has flexibility in deciding how
to carry out safety functions, it must also indicate
in its policy or in information provided to students
which office or school official serves as the college or
university's "law enforcement unit." (The institution's
notification to students of their rights under FERPA
can include this designation. As an example, the
Department has posted a model notification on its
Web site at
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid
/fpco/ferpa/ps-officials.html.)

Law enforcement unit officials who are employed
by the college or university should be designated in
the institution's FERPA notification as "school officials"
with a "legitimate educational interest." As such,
they may be given access to personally identifiable
information from students' education records. The
institution's law enforcement unit officials must
protect the privacy of education records it receives
and may disclose them only in compliance with
FERPA. For that reason, it is advisable that law
enforcement unit records be maintained separately
from education records.

Disclosure to Parents

When a student turns 18 years old or enters a
postsecondary institution at any age, all rights
afforded to parents under FERPA transfer to the
student. However, FERPA also provides ways in which
schools may share information with parents without
the student's consent. For example:

Schools may disclose education records to parents if
the student is a dependent for income tax purposes.

Schools may disclose education records to parents
if a health or safety emergency involves their son
or daughter.

Schools may inform parents if the student who
is under age 21 has violated any law or its policy
concerning the use or possession of alcohol or a
controlled substance.

A school official may generally share with a parent
information that is based on that official's personal
knowledge or observation of the student.

FERPA and Student Health
Information

Postsecondary institutions that provide health or
medical services to students may share student
medical treatment records with parents under the
circumstances described above. While these records
may otherwise be governed by the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA),
the HIPAA Privacy Rule excludes student medical
treatment records and other records protected
by FERPA. The Department plans to issue further
guidance on the interplay between FERPA and HIPAA.

FERPA and Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)

FERPA permits institutions to comply with
information requests from the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Bureau (ICE) in order to
comply with the requirements of SEVIS. Officials
who have specific questions about this and other
matters involving international students should
contact the U.S. Department of Education's Family
Policy Compliance Office.

Transfer of Education Records

Finally, FERPA permits school officials to disclose
any and all education records, including disciplinary
records, to another institution at which the student
seeks or intends to enroll. While student consent
is not required for transferring education records,
the institution's annual FERPA notification should
indicate that such disclosures are made. In the
absence of information about disclosures in the
annual FERPA notification, school officials must make a reasonable attempt to notify the student
about the disclosure, unless the student initiates
the disclosure. Additionally, upon request, the
institution must provide a copy of the information
disclosed and an opportunity for a hearing.
See 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(2) and § 99.34(a).

Contact Information

For further information about FERPA, please
contact the Family Policy Compliance Office or
visit its Web site.